Publications
Open Markets Institute joins Groundwork Collaborative to release a paper highlighting how the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis has exposed and exacerbated the flaws in the current global trading system, specifically as shortages of live-saving supplies like masks and ventilators have emerged across the world and countries have resorted to export bans to address them.
Read MoreOn July 21, 2020 3, Open Markets Institute filed a petition demanding the Federal Trade Commission ban exclusionary contracting by monopolists and other dominant firms. 30+ public interest groups and scholars signed the petition, including Food & Water Action, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and the American Economic Liberties Project. The petition calls on the FTC to use its unfair methods of competition authority to prohibit exclusionary contracting.
Read MoreThe Center for Journalism & Liberty rejects the Department of Justice’s approval of Liberty Media’s acquisition of iHeartMedia and urges a merger moratorium to block future consolidation, especially via mediums like radio, that are essential to disseminating news to Americans.
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute urges federal enforcers to block Uber’s acquisition of Postmates, which would consolidate the predatory delivery app market from just four dominant players to three, threatening vulnerable restaurants and gig workers already devastated by the pandemic.
Read MoreWashington, DC – The following is a statement from Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute in regard to Amazon’s planned acquisition of Zoox
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute has long held that a deeply flawed regulatory environment in the United States has allowed Google, Facebook, and other platforms to acquire a dangerous concentration of control over how Americans exchange ideas, opinions, and news. Moreover, the profits of these corporations are based in large part on building user “engagement” through false and inflammatory content while starving trustworthy and accountable information sources of ad revenue.
Read MoreThe bills proposed by both Rep. Cicilline and Rep. Eshoo are critical first steps to preserving the integrity of our elections and stopping the manipulation of American voters. As I previously testified, Facebook and Google make a lot of money by renting out their manipulation machines to anyone who pays. These platforms surveil their users and then allow disinformation agents to target propaganda at users based on comprehensive and intimate data profiles.
Read MoreProposal calls for repeal of executive order invoking Defense Production Act to keep slaughterhouses operating.
Read MoreSen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) proposed legislation today to halt harmful mergers, in order to protect the American public from further consolidation and concentration. Open Markets applauds the moratorium on mergers and acquisitions by large firms as well as post-crisis rules to prevent dangerous takeovers once the economy begins to improve.
Read MoreHouse Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) proposed legislation today for halting harmful mergers to protect the American economy, during the Shock Proof conference hosted by Open Markets and the OECD. Open Markets applauds the principles of the proposed moratorium on mergers and acquisitions by large firms not on the brink of failing.
Read MoreIn a very timely and important in-depth article for The Guardian, the Open Markets Institute’s new Fellow Mya Frazier sounds the alarm on how working conditions in food processing facilities across the country endanger thousands of workers.
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute today called on anti-monopoly law enforcers and Congress to take a simple, three-step approach to breaking the dangerous concentration of power and control by Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
Read MoreThe Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute calls on the DOJ to immediately make clear that it will not allow any large-scale deal between Liberty and iHeartMedia. Any such deal would harm American journalism by further concentrating power in local radio markets nationwide, reducing the outlets for news as well as artists, and such a deal would threaten local businesses with higher advertising rates.
Read MoreOne of the most reckless profiteering trends in recent decades is dominant corporations’ use of repair restrictions to force consumers to use original manufacturers’ repair services. To document and address this issue, the Open Markets Institute today released Fixing America: Breaking Manufacturers’ Aftermarket Monopoly and Restoring Consumers’ Right to Repair.
Read MoreThe FTC has proposed to settle a market allocation scheme among three leading rent-to-own operators with a "do not break the law again" order and also opted not to challenge an illegal interlocking directorate arrangement among two of them. The rent-to-own industry is a part of the fringe financial sector (think payday and title lenders, pawn shops, and check cashers) that preys on the working poor squeezed by low and volatile incomes and denied access to conventional credit.
Read MoreIn a comment filed with the USDA, the Open Markets Institute urges the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to curtail meatpackers’ abusive tactics and to stand up to judicial overreach by reviving the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA).
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute and our allies agree there is a pressing need for new vertical merger guidelines. The existing guidelines were fundamentally flawed when they were first introduced by the Reagan Administration in 1984. OMI and its allies call on the FTC and the DOJ to draft new guidelines consistent with the text and purpose of the Clayton Act and the DOJ’s 1968 Merger Guidelines.
Read MoreOpen Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn is interviewed in the Feb. 18 episode of the PBS documentary series Frontline, titled “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos.”
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